MCO Capital loan

foomanchu · 9 September 2010 at 8:08PM

My wife has received a similar letter from Lending Stream today for a loan we didn’t take out – I was going to post for advice when I came across this thread. I’ve tried calling Leading Stream a couple of times with no answer, so I think we’ll just write them a letter. Should we contact anyone else (Action Fraud / Police) while not victim of fraud we must be victim of identity theft?

Chris55_2 · 9 September 2010 at 10:05PM

Please see the following link from the Daily Mirror: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/09/beware---mco-capital-targeted.html

It looks like hundreds of victims of identity theft are being asked to repay loans they didn't take out.
Action Fraud has had over 100 calls in the past 24 hours from people worried sick by demands for money from MCO Capital.
It appears they are all victims of a gang of identity thieves who have taken out the loans using their details but who, naturally, haven't kept up repayments.
In case anyone is tempted to bury their head in the sand over this, the advice from Action Fraud is "don't"

A spokeswoman said: "If people ignore letters about goods or services they haven't requested they could end up in debt, with bailiffs on their doorstep and a poor credit rating."
If you're a victim, write to MCO Capital Ltd, Imperial House, 15-19 Kingsway London WC2B 6UN, explaining that you didn't take out the loan and haven't had the money.
If you need any more advice contact Action Fraud via their website www.actionfraud.org.uk or call 0300 123 2040.
Action Fraud will be able to take a crime reports, give you a crime reference number and then feed this into the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, part of the City of London Police.

catherine12345_2 · 10 September 2010 at 9:10AM

foomanchu wrote: »

My wife has received a similar letter from Lending Stream today for a loan we didn’t take out – I was going to post for advice when I came across this thread. I’ve tried calling Leading Stream a couple of times with no answer, so I think we’ll just write them a letter. Should we contact anyone else (Action Fraud / Police) while not victim of fraud we must be victim of identity theft?

This is my advice based on my own experience: definitely ring Action Fraud....I found them really helpful. I then contacted the police and got an incident number (I had to actually go into the station for that). I'd then write a letter to the loan company giving them the police incident number - as victims of fraud they can convert that into a crime number themselves if they wish. Apparently it is a criminal offence to falsely report identity theft to the police so the loan company take your letter much more seriously if you've been to the police (well, I found so anyway).
Please try not to get too stressed. I was a mess when this first happened, but I've learned so much and feel much stronger. Action Fraud are reassuring.

catherine12345_2 · 10 September 2010 at 9:14AM

Oh and Chris55, I saw this article too but I found it misleading. Nobody will give you a crime number unless you have actually suffered a financial loss and it is the loan company (at this point) who are the only ones who appear to have done that. I went round and round in circles trying to get a crime number and whilst I was at the station the police actually called Action Fraud for advice. They then agreed that the best they could do was issue me an incident number. I understand others have actually had crime numbers so it appears things are a little inconsistent. An incident number turned out to be suffient in the end.

Chris55_2 · 10 September 2010 at 11:24AM

catherine12345 wrote: »

Oh and Chris55, I saw this article too but I found it misleading. Nobody will give you a crime number unless you have actually suffered a financial loss and it is the loan company (at this point) who are the only ones who appear to have done that. I went round and round in circles trying to get a crime number and whilst I was at the station the police actually called Action Fraud for advice. They then agreed that the best they could do was issue me an incident number. I understand others have actually had crime numbers so it appears things are a little inconsistent. An incident number turned out to be suffient in the end.

Thanks for posting your experience. I just linked to the story so that people searching would realise that this is a real problem that they should do something about, fortunately I've not yet been in this position myself. This forum really works when someone with genuine experience can provide guidance. Good luck to all those affected.

dj9876 · 10 September 2010 at 2:39PM

have just visited imperial house kingsway london.
MCO capital are not there and there were a lot of letters(some recorded) at reception.
I was told that they would be forwarded to MCO.
If you look at the MCO website there is a different address.

KendraR · 10 September 2010 at 2:55PM

I too have fallen victim to this and some of you recieved a letter yesterday relating to a loan for £513 taken out on 21st August. I managed to obtain a crime number from my local Police 'Office' and Helploan tell me that the loan is now marked as fraudulent. They claim they are under no obligation to investigate though (for £500 they usually just write the debt off) and that I will receive no confirmation from them about it.

I asked them to describe the loan process and information needed by the fraudster in order to take out the loan, and what they told me is incredibly concerning. Apparrently a bank account under my name was required, registered at my current address. Also required was a mobile phone account, again registered at my address. Applications are made online and a text message would have been sent out and the applicant required to text back to confirm their identity. Or my identity as it turns out! This now has much greater implications and is incredibly worrying.

pstallwood · 11 September 2010 at 4:33PM

Just to join the above messages, I to received a letter from MCO Capital stating that I owed them £513.00 for a £300 loan taken out, which was totally unknown to me, but I did phone them expecting them to be some sort of cowboy outfit and left a message, they phoned back the same day and were very helpful (not at all what I expected) they promised to send me out a letter stating that they had closed the file with me.
I received this letter on the 8th September a very informative letter explaining out "identity theft" and what to do.
So my dealings with them have gone very smoothly and they were very helpful (much to my surprise).
But please do not ignore these letters as you will either get blacklisted or have a visit from the bailiff.

Xpersephone2 · 11 September 2010 at 11:52PM

I've had a similar experience to many of you; £513 loan repayment etc. Here are my views / experiences...

1. It's difficult to see how how MCO were scammed by the creation of many hundreds of bank accounts, matching the names and addresses of the stolen identities. Given the requirement for sight of a 'hard ID' - ie a passport + 2 utility bills at the bank this is unlikely. Action Fraud agreed with this view; they told me today that apparently the helploans.co.uk website did not check most of the details typed into it, and the loans were going into bank accounts with different names etc to those of the stolen identities.

2. I got through to MCO on Friday. Very civil; even when I refused to tell them anything other than that I did not have a loan with them, and they needed to write to me explaining how they were going to ensure that their negligence in not checking who they were paying out their loans to did not waste any more of more of my time or affect my credit rating. During this call MCO claimed that they carried out credit checks. I had already checked Equifax and Experian; and found neither a loan nor a credit search of me from / by MCO.

3. MCO had my name, address and DOB, but my bank account details were (obviously) wrong, as was the mobile the SMS loan application process had used.

I've worked in the banking industry in the past, and am an IT systems expert. I would not be surprised if MCO were being scammed by more than one criminal group in multiple ways; gvien the manifest weakness of their systems. You'd be surprised how quickly word goes around the draker parts of the web about stuff like this; and the continual probing of such systems to find the weaknesses in the first place.

I'd normally laugh at an organisation like MCO taking a six-figure hit but for the stress it causes partciularly amongst the more vulnerable.

klflosser · 12 September 2010 at 5:17PM

An update on my previous post. I was called back by MCO and explained the situation. Despite having a new search on my credit file by them they said they had no information about me on their system. I find that slightly strange and their answer was that it could be pending and to contact my identity protection company to put in a dispute etc. I now have a caseworker who is looking into it and they have also put CIFAS in place. I have checked Equifax and Creditcall and nothing shows on their reports.
I am perhaps luckier than some that I do have insurance in place and do not have to deal with the problem alone, but I have still spent much time and several phone calls trying to get it sorted out.

MCO Capital loan

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